Grace
Mwase, 14, may look like a child, but her community sees her as an
adult because of a sexual initiation she attended at age 10. (Beenish
Ahmed)CHIRADZULU, Malawi — A slight frame gives
her the appearance of a child, but the hardened look Grace Mwase wears
makes her seem older than her 14 years. In many villages across Malawi, a
largely agrarian sliver of a country in southern Africa, custom
dictates that both boys and girls as young as eight attend a rite of
passage known as “initiation,” after which they are no longer seen as
children. The practice is most entrenched in the country's south, where
Mwase's Golden Village is located.
